The U.S. is sowing generational seeds of hatred

August 29, 2014 12:00 AM

Dan Simpson’s Aug. 27 column “Disunited They Stand” should be required reading for every voter and politician. Taxpayers have paid for maintaining “800 bases in Afghanistan”? Unbelievable! “The Pentagon ... needs another war to justify its budget.” Deplorable! “Potential American allies in the fight for Iraq are a sorry lot”? No problem!

The Islamic State threatens the interests of numerous oil companies like Chevron and ExxonMobil. Now that is a real problem justifying costly airstrikes in Kurdish territory, not that the American public is very concerned.

Many politicians want us to be ignorant of such realities. They are selling this war by focusing on the conveniently visceral brutality of the Islamic State.

We prefer killing by remote control — the brutality of drones and smart bombs is impersonal. We don’t post videos of hundreds of innocent civilians mistakenly targeted — maimed or burned to death. “Accidents happen,” we say.

Rest assured that no one on the receiving end shares this benign interpretation. We are effectively sowing generational seeds of hatred and retaliation.

“Let’s just hope that Mr. Obama gets it, and has the strength not to let his collection of advisers push him into intervention.” Thank you, Mr. Simpson.

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